Galaxy shoes are super fun and easy kids craft using canvas shoes, Sharpie markers, and rubbing alcohol.

Galaxy shoes are a super fun and easy craft to make with kids.  There is very little mess and this is a very inexpensive craft. Plus the kids can wear them! I made these with my 8 and 10 year old and they did most of the work themselves and had a ball doing it.

DIY Sharpie Galaxy Shoes

Galaxy Shoes Supplies:

Start by gathering your supplies. You will need:

White canvas shoes (the cheaper the better!)

Sharpie Markers in various colors

Rubbing alcohol (mine was super old and still worked)

A small spray bottle (optional but it makes getting the rubbing alcohol on the shoes easier)

Optional: Glitter spray or silver fabric paint

Scotchgard sealant

How to Make Galaxy Shoes

Start by removing the shoe laces from the shoes, if they have laces.  Let the kids choose the color scheme in markers they want to use. If you want a true “galaxy” look, use blues, purples and black.

Draw lines and spots on the shoes with the marker. It does not have to be solidly colored. The marker will run and blur once the alcohol is added. Make sure to keep the design the same on each shoe. So either do lines or do dots to keep the shoes matching.

My son ignored the “galaxy” part of the shoes and just added a hodge podge of colors. His colors were much closer to each other, which I wouldn’t recommend. The colors end up running to much into each other. But the shoes still turned out cute.

Once the shoes are colored as desired, put the rubbing alcohol in to a small spray bottle. Spray the alcohol on the shoes. The marker will begin to spread and bleed. You can add more alcohol to get the colors to run further and darker or less to make them stay put and just blur. Turn the shoes as you add the alcohol to get the colors to run where you want them to go.

Allow the shoes to dry completely. Once the shoes are dry, add glitter spray or metallic paint to replicate stars. These are my son’s non-galaxy shoes.  You can see on the right shoe that he put the marker on in lines. The left shoe was done with large blobs of marker and less color.

Embellish the galaxy style shoes with silver paint for “stars” and a bit of glitter spray for a little bling.

 

Once all the embellishments are on the shoe, spray with Scotchgard. We used a heavy duty type because these are kids shoes, after all. I wanted to make sure the marker wouldn’t run if it got wet. Coat according to the directions on the can.

The kids have been wearing their galaxy shoes for almost 2 months with no problems. The marker hasn’t bled on to socks and the shoes still look great!